1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water dispenser mounted on the door of the refrigerator for dispensing chilled water or beverage at the outside of the refrigerator without opening the door.
More particularly, the invention related to a water dispenser having a water supply means provided in the door wall of the refrigerator for refilling the water tank when it is empty.
2. Description of the Related Art
The refrigerator is an appliance for keeping foods and beverage at low temperature. Normally, it is preferable that water or beverage should be kept at about 4.degree. C. temperature. When user opens the door of the refrigerator to enjoy water or beverage kept inside, the cool air in the refrigerator escapes from the refrigerator. Then, the refrigerator needs to consume more electric power to lower the inside temperature again.
Therefore, in order to reduce the power consumption of the refrigerator, its door should be open as infrequently as possible. For this purpose, the refrigerator having a water dispenser disposed in the door of the refrigerator has recently been marketed.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side elevational view showing the structure of a conventional water dispenser. The water dispenser 101 includes a water tank 111 provided inside of the refrigerator door 110, and a water discharging part 116 provided outside of the refrigerator door 110.
The water discharging part 116 has a cock 113 connected with the water tank 111 through a drain hose 112, an operating lever 114 for opening and closing the cock 113, and a water receiving tray 115 provided in opposite site of the cock 113.
For this type of water dispenser, in order to chill water or beverage, user opens the cap 117 of the water tank 111 and supplies the water tank 111 with water or beverage. After a few hours, water or beverage contained in the water tank 111 is chilled by cooling air circulated in the refrigerator. When user wants to drink chilled water or beverage, he does not need to open the door 110 of the refrigerator. He merely pushes the operating lever 114 of the water dispenser 101 toward "A" direction with a cup 118. Then, the cock 113 is opened by pushing the operating lever 114, and chilled water or beverage contained in the water tank 111 is discharged to the cup 118 through the drain hose 112. When the user removes the cup 118 and releases the operating lever 114, the operating lever 114 returns to its original position and the cock 113 is closed to stop the discharge of the chilled water or beverage.
According to the above conventional water dispenser, user does not have to open the door of the refrigerator to get chilled water or beverage. However, when the water tank is empty, user must open the door of the refrigerator to re-supply the water tank with water or beverage. In order to re-supply the water tank with water or beverage, user must open the door of the refrigerator and separate the water tank from the door of the refrigerator.
Consequently, a great quantity of cooling air in the refrigerator escapes from the refrigerator during the above process which results in a waste of electric power energy.
Another prior art example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,442, discloses a refrigerator with a water dispenser combined with a reverse osmosis water purification system so that purified water is available at an ice-maker and water tap forming part of the refrigerator. The prior art allows user to get cool water without opening the door of the refrigerator.
Also since city water is supplied directly to the tank, it is not necessary to open the door to re-supply the water tank with water or beverage which result in a great deal of power consumption. However, the structure of the system is very complicated, and thus the maintenance of the system become more difficult.